As expected, the beginning of the 2025/2026 legislative biennium got off to a slow start, but by design. The first few days of the session organize legislative members to their respective committees, organize leadership, and behind the scenes they are organizing their priorities. As of Friday, January 17 only 60 bills have been introduced out of a likely 1000 bills between both the Senate and the House over the next 30 days. The House of Representatives, unlike the Senate, elected their leader “Speaker of the House” prior to the beginning of the session in a member caucus with Representative Jill Krowinski from Burlington holding on to her seat for another term. The three person Senate “Committee on Committees” which assigns members to committees is composed of the Senate Pro Tem, Senate Majority Leader and Lieutenant Governor. Because the Lieutenant Governor is not officially installed until the session begins, the Senate waits to appoint their committees and their chairs. Both chambers appoint their committees within the first week of the session. Due to Republicans picking up seats in both the House and the Senate, it changed the composition of leadership. With no official formula, it has been precedent that there is parity between the parties’ members at large and who chairs committees. This means that Republicans picked up chair positions in both chambers.

On Tuesday, November 12th, 2024, Vermont Secretary of State, Sarah Copeland Hanzas, certified the election results from the prior week’s election which point to a changing trajectory in Vermont. Hanzas, while certifying her own reelection, was one of the six statewide candidates who won reelection. Our Congressional delegation will remain the same as Vermonters sent Representative Becca Balint and Senator Bernie Sanders back to Washington DC. State Treasurer Mike Pieciak, Auditor Doug Hoffer and Governor Phil Scott also sailed into easy reelection. The only surprise in the statewide candidate races was the Lieutenant Governor race which had Republican John Rogers of Orleans County beat incumbent Progressive/Democrat David Zuckerman. The race which Rogers won by only 6,000 votes represented the real shift in Vermont politics showing a resounding opposition to progressive policies and wild state spending. This race is likely to put an end to Zuckerman’s chances to run for governor in the future and the opposite for Rogers.